


Handlebars

by arminblossom (syrren)



Series: Music Drabbles [4]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-18
Updated: 2013-11-18
Packaged: 2018-01-01 23:15:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1049730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/syrren/pseuds/arminblossom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Armin gets onto the subject of the king and his parent's death and Hanji Zoe offers comfort.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Handlebars

_I can hand out a million vaccinations_

_Or let em all die from exasperation_

_Have 'em all healed from their lacerations_

_Or have em all killed by assassination_

_I can make anybody go to prison_

_Just because I don't like them_

_I can do anything with no permission_

_I have it all under my command because_

_And I can end the planet in a holocaust_

_In a holocaust_

_(based off the manga)_

            “Hey, Armin,” Hanji Zoe greeted the blond, walking in with a notepad in the crook of her arm. The brunette sat across from him and scrutinized him, making him sit up and smile uneasily.

            “What’s new, Hanji?” he asked, closing the tome in front of him.

            “I was just reading through the file you completed back when you first joined the military as a trainee. You didn’t tell me your parents died in the retrieval operation,” she said, sliding his file over to him. The strategist looked at the manila folder for a second before pushing it away from him. “I mean, I heard that you were from Shinganshina like Eren but I didn’t know you lost your family, too.”

            “Yes but my parents didn’t die like Eren’s mother. They died because of the king, because of the system of our society.” He sighed. No one had ever brought this up to him before, but he and the brunette were close ever since they found out Reiner and Bertholdts’ identities. He should’ve been expecting this.

            “Armin, I know it was wrong for them to send away all of those people, it’s on all of our heads, but—“

            “No! You don’t understand,” he stood up, knocking his chair back and looking at the scientist. “I _know_ it was for the best, I know it was for the good of the rest of us. Hell, we’re still eating, right? We had too much people and not enough space; we have to kill off a few. Perfectly acceptable, you know, anyone in their right minds would do the same thing!”

            “Armin…”

            The blond knocked the book off the table and leaned towards Hanji, knocking his knuckles on the wood of the table. “Our civilization is saved, we killed the innocent and that will never change, but the pigs are safe now, right?! Our king is still stuffing his mouth with the blood of the sacrificed, the blood of the innocent. My parents did nothing wrong, they just had to get called away because our government is selfish. Do you know how many of those people could’ve lived if the officials didn’t horde like they do? They have too much control, Hanji!

            “Don’t you think it’s _wrong_ , _sickening_?! Don’t you see what’s wrong with our society?! Our king has too much power; only he’s a figurehead isn’t he? Just a swine doing what he’s told to so that people can die. They have too much power; no one should be able to decide who survives and who lives. I can’t believe that there’s someone out there who has the ability to say but one word and hundreds of people can lose their lives. Someone who can shut us away in the dark while they sit in the light of the truth. We can do _nothing_ about it! We just have to sit here and wait. Wait for our deaths. Wait for the _king_ to send us to our deaths! They _want_ to kill us all, Hanji!”

            Silence. He sat back down in his chair.

            “No one can decide who lives and dies, because when there are too many people, people are no longer people. They are statistics. An influx in population. Kill this many people and you’re good to go. It’s just that one person says who without knowing that people are not statistics. And that’s why my parents died. Because they had the wrong number on the list. Because, on the charts, they were worthless. Poor. Commoners. Not able to fight. Who wants them around? We’re all statistics and it’s good for the chart as a whole. And we can’t fight the person who draws the graphs, because they’re isolated from society. They see numbers to take away so that the highest numbers can get their fill of food and wealth. It’s like getting angry at god, they’ll never answer.

            “And the ones effected like me. The ones who lost their parents. Or grandparents. Or siblings. Or loves. Or lives. It doesn’t matter. None of it matters.”

            Armin closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

            “I’m sorry, Hanji.” He got up to leave.

            “No,” she said quietly. He pulled him into a hug. “We’ll be your family. To hell with the king.”


End file.
